We Left the City to Live on a Goat Farm

This couple traded urban comforts for green acres and a bunch of kids (of the bleating, hooved variety).

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Alissa Hessler

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By Peg Rosen

Mar 10, 2016

Milking goats was hardly a skill that Louisa Conrad, a visual artist, and Lucas Farrell, a poet, honed in childhood. She grew up on the posh Upper East Side of Manhattan, and he was raised near the star-studded slopes of Aspen, Colorado. The two fell for country life and each other at Middlebury College in rural Vermont. After graduation, Louisa moved to Brooklyn for a while, and then they each pursued master's degrees — Louisa in California, Lucas in Montana — but no place felt quite right. So in 2010, Louisa, now 33, and Lucas, 34, got married and returned to the Green Mountain State.

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But earning money as an artist and a poet wasn't easy. Dissatisfied with teaching gigs, they soon decided to try something new: an apprenticeship at a local goat farm. In no time, they were hooked ("Goats are just incredibly lovely and funny," says Louisa). And in 2012 they bought an 84-acre tract of land. Together, they've built a thriving business, Big Picture Farm, making cheese and caramels.

'Having human kids of our own isn't off the table for us,' says Conrad. 'But I'll just say it's not our focus.'

Courtesy of Louisa Conrad

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Rain or snow or shine, Louisa and Lucas wake at sunrise and grab whatever clothes and muck boots are within reach. After eggs from their own hens and hot coffee, the two are off: Lucas to wrap caramels, do bookkeeping or fix farm equipment and Louisa to oversee the dairy, where a few employees hook the goats up to mechanical milkers. The duo grow virtually all the produce they eat in a garden planted next to their sun-flooded house. In the summer, Louisa often picks green beans and tomatoes, slathers them with fresh basil and goat cheese pesto and serves them up for supper.

During 'sugar season,' Louisa collects maple sap from the trees on their property.

Courtesy of Louisa Conrad

Their lives aren't perfect. Raising goats is grueling, and the couple sometimes miss dressing up and going to dinner with friends. "But every night, I take a walk down this one road, and I see the beauty and savor the simplicity of my life," says Louisa. "Will we do this forever? Nobody can say that. So I just focus on how lucky I feel right now."

Louisa and Lucas (pictured) named all 40 of the goats that live on their farm. 'There's Brooklyn, Manhattan and Gertrude, as in Stein,' she says with a laugh.

Courtesy of Louisa Conrad

As for their future, the couple are always considering ways to improve or expand. They might even add hogs back to the mix, creatures that Louisa admits she had some hairy experiences with while the couple were novice farmers. "We may be retiring some of our old lady goats and building a petting pasture for them. We also may bring back some pigs. But," she laughs, "Luke will be in charge of them!"

'Goat milk makes amazingly smooth and delicious caramel and the profits help support our farm,' says Louisa, whose caramels are sold everywhere from Amazon to Anthropologie.

Courtesy of Louisa Conrad

A version of this article originally appeared in the April 2016 issue of Good Housekeeping.